the darnedest things. we'll see you tomorrow on "morning joe." so we didn't learn much. midterms on the mind. with nine months to go, six is the magic number for the gop. we'll tell you what story lines to watch on the senate side of things. by the way, we're not in kansas anymore. and perhaps neither is republican senator pat roberts, who's now facing a primary challenge and a residency issue. meanwhile, how classy will san diego stay? anything's better than filner these days, you would imagine, six months after his fall from grace. voters head to the polls tomorrow. a growing hispanic community are democrats. demographics truly destiny in california. and the medals are stacking up in sochi, and so are security concerns as the first full week of the winter games gets under way. leading house republican warns that, quote, something will

detonate as the olympic games are being held. gee, thanks for that. good morning from washington. it's monday, february 10th, 2014. this is "the daily rundown," i'm chuck todd. let's get to my can "first reads" of the morning. the big prize in 2014 is the u.s. senate. the number-one question going into next year, this year can republicans net the six seats required to ring back senate control? 35 seats are up. in 2014. 21 of them are seats currently held by the democrats. 14 held by republicans. over the next five months we'll be following a number of story lines that will define this battle for the senate. the biggest one, of course, is can red state democrats overcome obama fatigue and a health care law unpopular in their states and win re-election? will house republicans who are running in those senate seats be dragged down by a republican brand which sits at an all-time low? can gop senate incumbents survive a gauntlet of right-on-right primaries, or will a circular firing squad

create problems for the party and otherwise save seats like they experienced the last two cycles? can the democratic women recruits in states like georgia and kentucky put those states in play and save the democratic majority? of course, there are all those open seats. first up, democrats hope it will be a game-changer in montana. this eck would, montana's former democratic lieutenant governor john walsh will be sworn in to replace senator max baucus, confirmed last week to be the next u.s. ambassador to china. walsh will have now the advantages incumbency. >> you know, i'll leave it to the voters to decide what happens in november. i chose the person that i believed would be most effective. >> it's an enormous responsibility, and i accept that responsibility knowing full well that there's a tremendous

amount of work to be done in washington. >> walsh, who will run in a state which the president lost by 14 points, is already distancing himself from national democrats saying, i'm not going to get sucked into washington, d.c. and national democrats are returning the favor. senator michael bennett, responsible for holding on the democratic majority, says john is the kind of guy who may not agree with the party on every single issue, but he has the selflessness and courage to always do what he thinks is right for montana. next up, the red-state democrats. they've been doing pretty much anything they can to distance themselves from the alienating democratic base. landrieu split with the white house on raising flood insurance. she said this, i think the president is more focused on running the country than helping me in my re-election. arkansas' mark pryor became the first to oppose the minimum wage hike. whether he would look to obama or biden as surrogates told

politico, i don't get people to come and campaign for me very often. arkansas people don't vote for you because somebody else says vote for you. i'm not going to tell anybody not to. north carolina's kay hagan, who won her race in 2008 on the president's cottails, declined to appear with them last month. and alaska's mark begich has taken things to another level. >> when i ran and won was the same year he won the first election for presidency, he lost alaska by 22 points. i still won. if he is interested in coming up, i'm not interested in campaigning. >> last week, the president rallying democrats with bill clinton, by the way, promised to stay away from campaign events where he won't be useful. instead, the president has promised to do a half dozen fund-raisers for the dscc. here's the thing, though. running away from your party, has it ever really worked as a national strategy in a midterm year? it didn't work for republicans

in 2006. it didn't work for democrats in 1994. it didn't work for democrats again in 2010. the distance may help an individual member or two survive. usually it's a well-established political figure or a newcomer who can avoid all of the parties' baggage, but it won't work for the average rank-and-file democrats, which explains why for instance former bill clinton is counselling democrats to steer the boat into the wind when it comes to the health care issue. but the president called the number-one attack tool on democrats. and to explain why they voted for it rather than avoiding the issue. so far, democrats nationally are not taking bill clinton's advice. america's for prosperity has spent $30 million, mostly on health care attacks, and last week, they went up with a counterattack, but it wasn't on health care. it was on medicare. >> people don't like political ads. i don't like them either. but health care isn't about politics. it's about people.

and millions of people have lost their health insurance. millions of people can't see their own doctors. >> hi. i'm linda. i've been married to the same wonderful man for 37 years and we have two great kids. retirement is just around the corner for us. that's why i was so concerned when i read congressman cotton voted to change medicare into a voucher system. >> by the way, bill clinton will campaign for kentucky democratic candidate allison grimes later this month, and is expected to fund raise in arkansas, georgia, louisiana, and republicans are trying to put new states in play. former rnc chair gillespie may be an underdog, but they argue the candidacy a symbol of national environment favorable to them. still, republicans are saddled with an unpopular party brand, a problem for the handful of republican members of congress campaigning for the senate. democrats are using last fall's shutdown against them at every opportunity. montana congressman steve danes

is doing his best to soften his image in a new ad, and expect to see a lot more like it, particularly from the house incumbents trying for the promotion. >> i'm running for the u.s. senate, because we need solutions, and washington needs montana common sense. >> finally, of course, there are at least a half dozen republican senate incumbents facing primary challenges that could at the very least batter them, drain them of war chests heading into the general election. over the weekend, in what could be a damaging twist for three-term kansas senator pat roberts, "the new york times" revealed he does not have a home address in kansas. the house on a country club golf course in dodge city that he lists as his voting address belongs to two longtime supporters that he pays rent to and stays with when he is in town. roberts faces a long shot tea party challenge from wolf, who has seized on the story to argue roberts is out of touch with his kansas roots. of course, the residency issue

dogged lugar in 2012. it's a tough story to shake, particularly as an incumbent. the whole gone washington routine. roberts' office is hitting back aggressively saying over the weekend, "the new york times" wrote a hit piece on senator pat roberts. the story is so slanted that kansasens will not take is seriously, but nowhere in the statement did roberts dispute the facts, acknowledging that senator roberts has long owned a home in dodge city, currently has a tenant. he also pays rent at a residence where he stays when he is in dodge city. he pays kansas state tax and property tax. one advantage for roberts, wolf only has 179,000 in the bank, compared with roberts' $2.2 million. and democrats have also not been able to recruit a serious challenger. so let's start with that kansas story, "the new york times" national political reporter jonathan martin wrote the piece. he started this latest back-and-forth. he joins me now. mr. martin. >> mr. todd.

>> when it comes to the roberts story, again, they said they didn't want to be lugar, they seemed concerned -- what was interesting about the reporting, this seems to be an issue they were worried about. >> yeah, what's fascinating is they're now saying he doesn't, in fact, own a property in dodge city. but that was the property that he has, according to his senate financial forms, listed as a rental income, meaning that someone has been living there for the last ten years. >> right. >> and they recognized that would be a problem for them in this campaign with the tee party challenger, so last fall he got a new driver's license and changed his voting address to the home of ross, longtime friends, donors of his in dodge city. so it's fascinating that now they're going back to the place that he rents out to say that -- so they thought -- that's his residence -- >> they thought the residency issue -- [ overlapping speakers ] >> -- they thought they were

fixing the lugar issue that at least for ten years he has rented out to a room in the home of donors. and that to me is the conundrum in this whole story, why they thought that was a fix. >> they're worried about the politics of it, looking like you've gone washington. what also doesn't help is his wife is a very successful real estate agent, but not in kansas. >> in alexandria. in fact, on her website -- >> in the suburbs. >> yeah, foster, touts her local experience, extensive knowledge of the washington suburbs and talks about how she's been really good at finding new members of congress homes when they come to washington, d.c., which gets to the bigger picture here, todd. pat roberts comes from an earlier day in washington, in national politics. he came to the congress in 1967 as a staffer for carlson, longtime center from kansas, stayed there until '80 as a staffer. that was a time when you came to

washington, as either a staffer or a member, you bought a house, you found schools for your kids, and you basically lived here. and nobody questioned that. democrat or republican. >> and you could argue that it is better for doing the business that you need to get done in washington -- >> true. >> -- if you live here, it's better on marriages. it's better on families if you bring your entire family here. too many times i've seen incumbents who don't move their families here for political reasons, they end up succumbing to their own -- >> the temptations of washington. >> in a negative way. >> but the politics of this nowadays, it makes it very, very hard, given the rise of the primaries, especially onto right, for folk to sort of be identified with washington. and one of the ways that these incumbents get tagged as going washington is when it comes to the questions of residency. >> let's look at this race, or lack of a race. >> yeah. >> basically his claim to fame is he's a distant cousin of barack obama. remember his mom was --

>> yeah, the president's grandmother. >> it's not that distance of a relative. it's a pretty direct -- >> right. >> family reunion, everybody would be invited together. but he's not been able to raise a lot of money. >> not a lot of cash. >> not gotten traction. this potentially changes things. >> in this race, but also in a lot of the tea party primaries, chuck. the challengers are awaiting outside support. >> they don't need a lot of money. they need likeness. >> so much of this comes down to, can they get support from the outside groups to help them get on tv? and if they can, then typically they have a shot, and if they can't, it will be harder. keep in mind it's an august primary. and it's going to be a low turnout event and it reflects not even kansas, or the gop primary electorate in august, a conservative slice of voters. and that, by the way, is the other huge issue. the party in kansas in the obama era has become so conservative, it's really moved far to the

right from this sort of dull balm era. >> and that's going to be the real test -- >> that's roberts' challenge, more than anything else. can he survive as a representative of a more traditional kansas party, in a party that's gone far to the right. >> and the democrats? do they even exist in kansas? >> no democratic senator from kansas, chuck, since 1939. it's been a long time. >> that's for sure. >> a pretty safe seat. >> all right. jonathan martin, interesting stuff. thank you, sir. it's a race going down to the wire in one of the nation's biggest cities, and it takes place tomorrow. the fight to replace a disgraced democrat has become a war of donations and demographics. either candidate could make history in tomorrow's special election in san diego. first, a look at the politics planner. the state visit begins and the presidents of france and the united states go visit thomas jefferson's home. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. rd techns your car's health depends on a full, complete checkup.

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you know what i like to say about tuesdays. if it's tuesday, somebody will be voting somewhere. san diego, the special mayoral election, it could be the mike row come of the demographic shift happening. if a democrat and underdog, david alvarez, wins, he'll be the first in the history. if kevin faulkner wins, he'll be the first with the republican mayor. remember this is happening because of the scandal that forced filner out of office in late august. he was san diego's first democratic mayor since 1992. but less than a year after taking office, filner was accused of sexually harassing multiple women. he pleaded guilty to three criminal counts. so san diego needs someone to

finish filner's term. early voting has been under way for a while. mail-in ballots would favor the republicans. the key for the democrat will be getting out the vote. latinos make up 18% of the electorate in san diego. will they make up more in this election? david alvarez campaigns on the experience as the son of mexican immigrants. he's been attacking his opponent for siding with quote/unquote special interests. the republican, kevin faulkner, says alvarez is a tool for labor unions and calls hi s himself a consensus builder. we're joined by craig now, someone who's been following this race closely, with "the san diego tribune." thank you for coming in early. >> good morning. >> i was one of the folks who thought that when alvarez got into the runoff, instead of the candidate that i know some other democrats out there in california preferred, the assumption was this was falkener's race to lose. all of a sudden, it's a dead heat. >> yeah, absolutely. the polls showed in early january that faulkner, the

republican, had a 16-point lead over alvarealvarez, and alvarez caught up in the latest poll yesterday, they're in a dead heat, 1% apart, which is within the margin of error, and it will come out like you said earlier about the democratic turnout. can they get their voters to the poll in the special election where they tend not to come out full force. >> california labor is still very powerful in elections in california, and labor's come in big for alvarez, probably in a way that even his campaign didn't expect. financially, what have you seen on the air? is it an even fight here financially, or is faulkner able to continue to outspend alvarez? >> actually, alvarez is outspending faulkner. if you -- >> you throw in the labor, that's unbelievable. nobody thought that going in. >> yeah, about 4.5 million on alvarez' side and 3.5 million on faulkner's side, and 80% of the money on alvarez' side is from labor unions. a lot of the unions are located

in sacramento and washington, d.c., and so faulkner has been really hammering away at that, saying the out-of-town special interests are trying to buy the election, and he represents the other side of that. most of his money is local. he's got more individual donors than alvarez. and so, it's really become almost like a class warfare here in san diego. you have the unions and the working family element on the left, and then you have the pro-business element on the right, and they're just waging war here. >> is filner at all a part of this story? >> no. he's not. he's huge afterthought. and one of the key things in the race is david alvarez, the democrat, was his closest ally at city hall when filner was mayor. that hasn't been raised as an issue in this campaign, until just lately. and faulconer, he was one of the people that helped negotiate the resignation of filner, and the

deal to get him out of office last august, and he's been touting that on his side. >> obviously, san diego, for years, it's been a republican bastion of sorts, pete wilson, san diego has a history of electing republican mayors, but in the last decade, we've seen a very sort of -- you've seen this shift, mostly driven, i think, by demographics and the growth of hispanics, where democrats started to win more local elections. in this case, if republicans can't win now, under these circumstances, in san diego, do you look at this and say, this could spell the end of them for a while until things change on the hispanic front? >> yeah, absolutely. i wrote a story a few weeks ago with that basic premise. this is the republicans' -- maybe their last best shot to take control of san diego, because the democratic -- the demographics shift has been such that there's increasing gap between the number of registered

democrats and republicans, something like 90,000-plus voters' difference. if they don't win the special election following a scandal involving a democrat, i don't know when they could win, because the next round will be during the -- it's always during a presidential election. so that always favors the democrat. if they're down on registration, it's going to be very -- an uphill battle for the republicans in what used to be a republican-dominated city. >> basically, they don't win now, they may not win for another decade. >> i could see a long winning streak for democrats if the republicans can't win this thing. >> all right. craig gustafsson, reporting on this race for "the san diego tribune." we know most people have already voted, but thank you for coming on and getting up early. >> thanks for having me. up next, is immigration at an impasse? we're going to talk to our monday morning gaggle about the republicans' reversal and this, quote, trust issue that's turning into a supposed deal breaker. first, today's trivia

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speaker is facing, and it's related to obamacare and the disastrous rollout. >> i will tell you there is a great deal of skepticism and concern. the president changed on immigration before. he said something he wanted to do was unconstitutional a year later he did it. >> but democrat senator chuck schumer offered another idea to call boehner's bluff. >> there's a simple solution. let's enact the law this year, but simply not let it actually start till 2017 after president obama's term is over. now, i think the rap against him that he won't enforce the law is false. he's deported more people than any other president. but you could actually have the law start in 2017 without doing much violence to it. >> republican senator rob portman didn't completely rule out schumer's proposal. >> what chuck talks about delaying it, i think some republicans would be interested

in that if we put in place the enforcement measure so that it would work. >> but speaker banner's office rejected the idea. michael steele said the proposal was entirely impractical and would eliminate any incentive, he claims, for president obama to enforce the laws during the remainder of the second term. republicans have no interest in taking it up in a year that divides them. does gop think getting this done in 2015 will be any easier? joining me is "washington post" dan pauls, democratic pollster anna greenberg and raj of bloomberg review. ameche, i'll put it, since you're representing the right side of things on this panel this morning, is immigration reform any easier to do in 2015 than it is in 2014? >> well, congressional republicans tell each other that we might have more seats in the senate, we can get a better deal. but it's not really clear what it looks

going to remain opposed to it. >> the country is not clamoring for it. you know, it was the one -- one of the few proposals in the state of the union that we tested that didn't have a majority of support, even -- majority of support among democrats. it's not seen as a priority. that's not to say that the public doesn't agree to it, just didn't see it as a priority for now. so maybe there isn't a penalty. >> well, maybe there isn't, and i think there's some republicans who think there's not going to be a penalty if they do that. i think the danger for the republicans is if we get into the 2016 race and there is another series of primaries and primary debates in which immigration becomes front and center, at least in part in those discussions, and it pushes the eventual nominee to the right, or you have an open warfare within the republican party on it. i mean, we know -- i mean, this is a congressionally based party at this point, to become a presidential party. you've got to figure out how to deal with this issue, i think. >> or what about a sitting party? we were discussing san diego.

you're doing work in san diego on behalf of democrats there. >> mm-hmm. >> and what we're talking about here, the issue of hispanics becoming a growing demographic group, and it's just helping democrats left and right. they should not be surviving in a place like san diego right now under the circumstances with which they just lost an office, remember, and yet they might? >> and san diego's becoming a democratic city because of the growth of the hispanic population. there are probably about 33 congressional districts, some held by democrats, and some held by republicans, where the hispanic vote could make a difference, especially in california and the southwest. and while i don't think there's a huge price to pay in the 2014 elections for republicans, i think every signal sent, with the way the base talks about it, just sets up a real problem for 2016. >> and that's the thing, ramesh, is i get the politics of this, and you hear the senate republicans, mitch mcconnell, apparently, is relieved they're not doing this, because he's got a don't offer your primary opponents something to run on.

and immigration is something to run on. >> but it's not just that there are a lot of congressional republicans who are in districts without a huge hispanic population, and this is -- >> which, by the way, is self-fulfilling. it's sort of, if you don't represent hispanics, then you don't know who you to talk to hispanics, you don't campaign for their vote, et cetera. >> there are some who think this issue is overrated as the key to unlocking that vote, and getting a hearing. there are folks who say, look, if we do this, don't we come back with a fight over liberalizing the guest worker rules? don't we come back to a fight about citizenship? and meanwhile, we've got this large population of folks who it's not just immigration, they're skeptical of our positions on health care, minimum wage, so on, so forth, and is this issue being oversold? >> i want to switch gears a little bit, because it's popping up in the news, and rand paul has brought up bill clinton and monica lewinsky, and now we've got these paper the, diane lane, the friend of hillary clinton, whose papers are now public, a lot of reporters are combing through, the first reports out

this morning, various ways. shockingly, hillary clinton was very involved in some of the politics -- well, duh, it was to save her husband's lit cal career. dan, are you surprised that there's -- that we're going back to 1998 again, and are you surprised that rand paul seems so comfortable doing it? >> i am a little surprised by that. and it's not as though he stumbled into this, because he's now done it repeatedly. >> yeah, no, the first one -- it was answering a question about his wife's position, in a statement she made to "vogue" magazine. and he now comes back to it. >> i think it's a tricky issue to try to delve into. we know that there's a part of the public that's never going to forgive the clintons for anything they did. >> right. >> but is that going to spill over and cause problems for republicans if they take this too far in. >> every time this is brought up, it only helps hillary clinton. >> absolutely. first of all, they're immensely popular, both of them. and the scandals were a long time ago. if you think about the age --

the aging of this electorate. >> right. >> yes, there are people who will never forgive the clintons for a whole range of things -- >> the year of impeachment, voting in their first presidential election -- >> exactly, what they remember about hillary clinton, she had a primary with barack obama and a wonderful secretary of state, and she's classy, and she's funny. and that's sort of ancient history. and i just, i think it's very, very dangerous territory. i think it has all the potential to back pickfirbackfire? >> there is potential to backfire, but it isn't just people who don't forget the clintons, but people who don't want the drama of the clintons -- >> that's what obama ran against. it was turn the page. turn the page was code for no more drama. >> the danger for the republicans is if they're the ones creating the drama and they get blamed for it. >> the drama doesn't come out of nowhere. it comes out of republicans -- >> somebody is making -- >> exactly. >> the drama comes out of the clintons. it's incumbent on secretary clinton, if she decides to run, to figure out how to deal with this. she's got to prove that she can

turn the page. >> does this fire up the base? does the republican base -- do they like this? is this sort of -- is this -- do they want -- are they going to reward rand paul for being willing to go where other republicans aren't? >> well, probably a little bit, except the base now looks back more fondly on the clinton years now that they've experienced obama. >> yeah, they'll have their own ideological whiplash there. all right. thank you. >> thank you. >> up next. boycott backlash. it's a "deep dive" into a new source of tension perhaps between the united states and israel, sparked by secretary of state john kerry. you're watching "the daily rundown" only on msnbc. ♪ ♪ ♪ told ya you could do it. (dad vo) i want her to be safe. so, i taught her what i could and got her a subaru.

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[ male announcer ] new alka seltzer fruits chews. they're the days to take care of business.. when possibilities become reality. with centurylink as your trusted partner, our visionary cloud infrastructure and global broadband network free you to focus on what matters. with custom communications solutions and responsive, dedicated support, we constantly evolve to meet your needs. every day of the week. centurylink® your link to what's next. our "deep dive," what do secretary john kerry, scarlet johansson and 350,000 jewish settlers have in common? they're part of today's new uproar that's threatening to drive a wedge between the united states and israel.

ironically, it was secretary of state john kerry, the face of the u.s. peace effort these days, that appeared to send the story into overdrive. while in munich for the security conference, he openly wondered about what would happen if the peace negotiations crumbled. >> you see for israel there's an increasing delegitmization campaign that's been building up. people are sensitive to it. there are talks of boycotts and other kinds of things. are we all going to be better with all of that? >> despite the fact that kerry himself did not call for a boycott, his remarks sparked an uproar in israel. the papers carried headlines about the threat of boycotts and questioned how the nation would hold up. keep in mind, this has been building for sometime. recently, actress scarlet johansson left her longtime post with oxfam after the aid organization took issue with her commercial for soda stream. it has manufacturing facilities in the west bank.

oxfam said companies deny the rights of palestinians and some israelis are concerned that other organizations may begin to turn their back on israeli goods. the palestinian campaign for boycotts, deinvestment, and sanctions, is trying to use the flap as a way to generate new headlines and new momentum for its mission. so when kerry mentioned the word boycott, israeli officials pounced. prime minister benjamin netanyahu called attempts to boycott israel unethical and unjustified. israel's intelligence minister criticized kerry himself. >> secretary kerry say is totally unacceptable. >> but remember, kerry never called for a boycott and never threatened one. the state department spokesperson g imt nsaki said, secretary kerry has -- but he expects all parties to accurately portray his record and statements. well, joining me now so lend perspective is former florida

congressman robert wexler. congressman, good to see you. >> good morning. >> this first popped up on my radar -- i get a lot of israeli newspapers, we get a whole thing, but this first popped up, howard did a story during the mandela funeral, saying there is fear among israel, among the israel business community, there is a tipping point. what happened to south africa in the '80s could be globally what happens to israel now in 2014 and 2015. are they -- are they -- is there something to this? >> well, of course, there is. because large european institutions, financial institutions in particular, have begun to adopt policies that are punitive with respect to israel, and europe is israel's still biggest trading partner. prime minister netanyahu made an extraordinary speech recently at the davos economic conference, in which he outlined this remarkable innovation nation.

i mention it, because after he was done with the speech, he then did ainn interview with th european journalist, which i assume the israeli office chose. prime minister netanyahu went back to israel, called an emergency cabinet meeting to discuss what's happening in europe. that's what secretary kerry was referring to. and what's important, three people on this earth, in the last four years, have done more to stop the boycott effort and mitigate its disastrous consequences. president obama. secretary kerry. and secretary clinton. and for there to be this angst regarding what secretary kerry is saying is a bit misplaced. what he's outlining is the imperative to make peace. >> well, obviously, on the world stage, israel has always found out -- they basically have one friend internationally, and that's it. when thick and thin, that stands up for them, the united states. it sounds like there's only so

much the united states can do to slow this movement down globally. what do you think the united states has to do to protect israel in this? i guess, number within, make sure the peace talks don't collapse, but if they do, what steps does the u.s. government need to take to prevent this from going mainstream? >> we need to do two things. we need to point out that punitive actions towards israel at this point in time, at no time are rightment but at this point in time, are particularly misguided. why? a likud, right of center israeli government, is negotiating. and they're negotiating in concert with the palestinian leadership for the -- >> being dragged to the table -- kerry is forcing -- let's not pretend that netanyahu and abbas are, ooh, let's negotiate. it is kerry dragging -- >> yes, that's a fair point. but the israelis are participating in a constructive process. it's not in the middle of the constructive process that a boycott effort, a discrimination effort against israel, is logical. second, which is most important, is that secretary kerry is

leading an american effort to, in kt fact, resolve the palestinian-israeli conflict, and take care of jerusalem, security, borders, refugees, in a way that will benefit both sides, but particularly as it relates to the settlement policy, the irony about the soda stream effort is that the factory is in an area that's relatively adjacent to the 67 lines, and in any anticipated resolution would be put within the internationally recognized borders of the state of israel. >> what can israel do -- what would you like to see the government of israel do to sort of calm the waters here? is there a fig leaf, some symbolic gesture that keeps the european business community from climbing on board this boycott bandwagon? >> i think we're beyond fig leafs. what the israeli governor should do, along with the palestinian government -- this isn't a one-way street -- the israeli government needs to be earnest

in the process of negotiations. within way in which it can display or illustrate its earnestness is to begin to be more forthright in terms of its vision -- israel's vision -- about where the internationally rec fiezed borders between the state of israel, the new state of palestinian should be. >> they never have. they never say -- other than they say what the border shouldn't be. >> that's not fair, chuck. >> they seem to -- >> no, i don't think that's fair. >> okay. >> two israeli prime ministers, prime minister barack and ulmer made detail offers, both in the clinton process, and again with president bush. >> i'm talking about this prime minister. >> they haven't done it yet. nor has there been that type of public display on both sides. and one other thing is important. prime minister netanyahu has demanded from the palestinians, not as a prerequisite, but at the end of the resolution of the negotiations, that israel be recognized as a jew, state. the homeland of the jewish people. it's a controversial topic, but it's important that people

understand this isn't just about borders. it's about competing historical narratives, and secretary kerry has done an enormous job in moving the international community closer to prime minister netanyahu's position. >> very quickly, i have to wrap up, but the idea that abbas is throwing out there that nato be the peace -- be the peacekeeping force if there is a two-state solution. you think that's a pretty good idea? >> i think what president abbas has proposed is a tremendous step forward, understanding that israel's security is an important aspect and a must be -- >> when you say nato, that's the united states. >> of course. >> so that's one way of making israel a little more comfortable with the -- >> yes, and president abbas is showing flexibility, and that's very important. showing commitment. >> always good to get your perspective. good to see you. good floridians here. coming up -- made that tape, by the way, on friday -- coming up, live to sochi, plus a history making moment for america's most popular sport,

college football player who's expected to head to the nfl for an early round draft pick, now poised to become pro football's first openly gay player. but first, the white house soup of the day -- 15 bean. not a french theme today. how about that? we'll be right back. tomorrow, though, come on. better be nothin' but creamy soups. we'll be right back. [paintball noises] the annual company retreat. planned, as usual, by this guy. nature lover... people person.

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time now for the monday "databank" including bad news for syria and bad news for meat lovers. one. meet michael sam. the s.e.c.'s defensive player of the year in 2013. he came out publicly over the weekend. some analysts say sam could go as high as the third round in the draft. if he's picked, sam would be the first openly gay player in the nfl. sam's announcement comes 10 months after nba journeyman jason collins said he was gay. collins, though, remains unsigned. will this end up hurting

mr. sam's draft status? there's been some talk already that the reason he's seen as a fifth or sixth round pick is because of his sexuality. pick of his sexuality. the next number, 230 days, how long it's been since the supreme court knocked down the defense of marriage act. starting today, the justice department extends rights of same-sex couples, giving them the same rights of heterosexual couples. federal death benefits and benefits for federal inmates will be the same for all married couples. the next number, 72, as in a 72-hour extension for the shaky cease-fire in syria. the break in the fighting has allowed the u.n. to evacuate some 600 people from the devastated city of hamas. workers have trying to get food to people trapped in the city at the same time they are trying to get others out. finally, 8.7 million, how many

pounds of meat have been recalled from the usda after being deemed unfit for human consumption. the meat products were taken from diseased animals and processed without proper inspection. usda has more details on its website, go get it, find out what meat you should avoid. now the trivia answer, it was barry goldwater, who was the last republican presidential nominee to not carry kansas in a general election. congratulations to today's winner, dan knight. we'll be right back with our olympics upstate. to help me become an olympian, she was pretty much okay with me turning her home into an ice rink. ♪ she'd just reach for the bounty select-a-size. it's the smaller, powerful sheet that acts like a big sheet. look, one select-a-size sheet of bounty is 50% more absorbent than a full size sheet of the leading ordinary brand. use less, with the small but powerful picker-upper, bounty select-a-size.

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ah, the games. first full week of competition is under way at the sochi olympic games. right now, norway has the lead in the total medal count with seven, thanks to all that cross-country skiing. canada, russia, and the u.s. all have five medals each. both american golds came in the new slopestyle event.

the netherlands round out the top five with four total medals. meantime on the sunday shows, lawmakers continue to express fears that the russians are not cooperating as well as they could be on the security front. >> the russians cooperating any better than they were in the beginning with our people? >> somewhat better, but still not on the same level as the chinese, the british, or the greeks. >> we're not getting the cooperation we'd like from the russians in terms of internal threats. >> the one last weakness, and this was the tension between russia and the united states, internal sharing of intelligence that we believe will be important. >> nbc's richard engel is live in sochi for us. richard, you heard all of those lawmakers complaining about the lack of communication with russian authorities with u.s. authorities, are you hearing the same thing? >> reporter: we're hearing that it's actually getting better, but that it's still not the level of communication that u.s. officials would like. it could be a problem of expectations.

of course, they are not going to get the same kind of cooperation that they got from london. the uk is one of the united states' closest allies, russia, certainly, is not. but we are hearing that it is getting better. >> richard, you throw beijing in there, and the implication is that beijing was actually more cooperative during the 2008 olympics than the russians here, but that is a point of pride in many ways for the russians, right? >> the russians think they have a handle on it. they think they have a handle, particularly on the threat from islamic militant groups, which is the main threat to these olympics, that some group from the north caucasus would try and carry out some attack, like they have threatened many times to do. this is a very sensitive, internal issue for russia. it's part of the unity of the country. it is not like china just being concerned that some outside force operating outside of its country could do an attack. this is very much domestic politics for russia.

>> all right, richard engel covering that story and sticky situations that are a part of these games, whether folks like it or not. thanks very much. that's it for this edition of "the daily rundown." the olympics are next on msnbc. team finland takes on team canada in hockey. see you tomorrow. i'm meteorologist bill karins. another arctic air mass is heading down from canada. it's going to be cold today from minneapolis all the way to the ohio valley. we are going to see winter weather in the deep south starting late tonight and through the day tuesday. looks like a possible snowstorm wednesday and thursday. spokesperson: we decided to settle this.

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we're new york. if there's something that creates more jobs, and grows more businesses... we're open to it. start a tax-free business at startup-ny.com. our coverage of the 2014 winter olympic is from the caucasus mountains to where you will find olympic part and shayba arena. hello, everyone. i'm liam mchugh. usa, switzerland, nice for david to make the